Posts by kenzieB

1) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Seti heat detection? (Message 1377113)
Posted 14 days ago by

kenzieB

When I was a kid I remember reading a novel wherein one of the sub-plots involved an alien species whose civilization generated so much heat that they were forced to move their planet to the far fringes of their solar system and just using their primary as an anchor to keep their world from drifting off.

Can't remember anything else about the story tho. :/

2) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : The Voyagers (Message 1374891)
Posted 18 days ago by

kenzieB

Voyager is approaching solar system's outer limit

Most astronomers set the outer edge of the solar system at the far edge of the Oort cloud which, by some estimates, is over a light-year out. It will be many, many thousands of years before they exit the solar system.

Just another example of journalistic hyperbole.

3) Message boards : Cafe SETI : TLPTPW # 187 (Message 1371476)
Posted 26 days ago by

kenzieB

My friend has Window's 8 on her new laptop that she asked me set up for her.

I do like Windows 7. :)

4) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Angela's Birthday Pun Thread!!! (Message 1371475)
Posted 26 days ago by

kenzieB

5) Message boards : Cafe SETI : TLPTPW # 187 (Message 1371469)
Posted 26 days ago by

kenzieB

Windows 8 is just plain Dog-Awful.

/today's rant

6) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Wind up? (Message 1368601)
Posted 34 days ago by

kenzieB

sounds like a yet another Fjernhode message. I think I'll ignore the rubbish and you can put that and many other of his personas on ignore so he cant send any more crap to you

LOL. The gaussian obsession is a bit of a give-away . :P

Chris: the ignore function is your friend. :)

7) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Has the lost city of Atlantis been found?? (Message 1366819)
Posted 39 days ago by

kenzieB

Of course Atlantis is real. It is in my daughter's boyfriend's gym bag. Going by the smell, there has to be something ancient and dead in there. :P

8) Message boards : Cafe SETI : For those addicted to Chocolate (Message 1356858)
Posted 66 days ago by

kenzieB

This whole thread is nothing but food porn.

Fortunately I don't mind a little porn from time to time. :D

9) Message boards : Cafe SETI : MLB : Opening Day 2013 ! (Message 1352905)
Posted 77 days ago by

kenzieB

I wonder how long it will take for my Mariners to be mathematically eliminated this year. :/

10) Message boards : Cafe SETI : TLPTPW - 183 Angela wins, She was #609 (Message 1352883)
Posted 77 days ago by

kenzieB

Welcome back. :P

11) Message boards : Cafe SETI : TLPTPW - 182 April Fool? Won by VBobier with #442 (Message 1352223)
Posted 81 days ago by

kenzieB

We learned that Allie is prone to sea-sickness.

Oh dear, not exactly condusive to sailing. That reminds me of the time over 35 years ago when some mates and me went across the English Channel from Hamble to Cherbourg, for an overnight saunter in a 1/4 tonner 22 footer sailboat. Next day we went down the French coast to Alderney, and got caught up in the Alderney Races, so we had to use the diesel engine to go out to sea and come back in to Brae Harbour.

On the way back home that night across the Channel, we hit a force 7 gusting 8, and in a small boat like that we were bobbing up and down like a cork. Normally I'm pretty good on the water but that night I was violently seasick from 11pm until dawn the next day. It was an experince I'm not sure I want to repeat!

Yeah getting sick on a rolling sea is no fun. Smallish boats like your 22 foot'er or the 26' San Juan that I'm a 1/3 owner of are designed and built to handle relatively rough weather, but nothing can make it comfortable.

Yesterday was sunny, warm, light winds and a calm sea. Allie + open water is just not a good mix. :D

12) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : UFO lights over Phoenix Arizona, real or not? (Message 1352213)
Posted 81 days ago by

kenzieB

My biggest issue with the whole idea of alien visitation is the question of why? No matter how advanced your civilization, travel between the stars is going to be a very costly enterprise. So, why would they pay that enormous energy budget to come here? There is no reason why they would. Therefore, they don't.

I can only refer you to the mission objectives of Star Trek.

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

I cannot think of a better reason for them or us ....

It is there, we can, so we do.

Star Trek = science fiction where it is very easy to travel around the universe.

Reality is that space is really, really, really big and no matter how advanced your technology it is going to be very, very, very difficult to get anywhere beyond their home solar system. I don't think that you or Julie have any true appreciation for just how vast these distances really are.

You don't make that kind of undertaking without some very compelling reasons. I've yet to hear any reason that makes any kind of rational sense.

I suspect that people believe in alien visitation for the same reason that others believe in some invisible man-in-the-sky. They want it to be true. But wanting something to be true doesn't make it true. It just makes the believers easy targets for you-tube pranksters and con-artists.

13) Message boards : Cafe SETI : TLPTPW - 182 April Fool? Won by VBobier with #442 (Message 1352211)
Posted 81 days ago by

kenzieB

Nice to hear Kenz. The Seymour river, Burrard inlet, English bay?

Coal Harbour Marina, under the Lions Gate Bridge and on to English Bay . . . and quickly returned.

We learned that Allie is prone to sea-sickness. :P

14) Message boards : Cafe SETI : TLPTPW - 182 April Fool? Won by VBobier with #442 (Message 1351852)
Posted 82 days ago by

kenzieB

Winning while getting ready to go sailing. I finally talked Allie in to giving it a try. :)

15) Message boards : Cafe SETI : JPL Open House June 8 & 9 2013 - now suspended (Message 1351850)
Posted 82 days ago by

kenzieB

Hmmm, Allie and I have been musing on possibly taking a little road trip this summer . . .

[edit] oops, just looked at the dates. She'll still be in school. Drats.

16) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : UFO lights over Phoenix Arizona, real or not? (Message 1351841)
Posted 82 days ago by

kenzieB

Hiyah Kenz.

Do aliens exist? The numbers would seem to indicate that they likely do.

Agreed.

Do aliens visit earth? The same numbers seem to indicate that they likely do not.

Beg to differ on that one. Best to behave on the safe side and accept they probably do ...

My biggest issue with the whole idea of alien visitation is the question of why? No matter how advanced your civilization, travel between the stars is going to be a very costly enterprise.

Why would they bother? To all available observations there are plenty of planets out there if they were desperate for natural resources. Likewise the more we look the more likely it seems that life itself is relatively abundant. And I refuse to believe that they would come here because we humans are here. That's just human arrogance speaking - really, we are not very interesting.

So, why would they pay that enormous energy budget to come here? There is no reason why they would. Therefore, they don't.

17) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : UFO lights over Phoenix Arizona, real or not? (Message 1351614)
Posted 83 days ago by

kenzieB

Just personal opinion but I could never buy into any of the alien visitation theories.

This distances involved are just so incredibly massive and the energy cost in travelling those distances (even for a super-advanced civilization) would be just too great.

Sometimes I think that people really don't appreciate just how massively huge the universe is.

Do aliens exist? The numbers would seem to indicate that they likely do.

Do aliens visit earth? The same numbers seem to indicate that they likely do not.

18) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Planck results (Message 1351564)
Posted 83 days ago by

kenzieB

If Uncle Albert was wrong (and he may very well have been) any replacement theories will have to explain all the predicted and observed results of relativity. No small task considering how subtle yet demonstrably real those effects are.

tuillo is 100% correct: GPS does work and if general relativity is wrong then it's replacement theory will have to explain why GPS works despite using a flawed theory.

Most probably this paradox is the same as the one we had between Newton &
Einstein. On the large scale Newtons theories worked but not on the small
scale. So along came Einstein to rectify this with his own discoveries. Perhaps
GPS is one of those things that works on the large scale but will fail on the
small scale. But overall, has nil effect on how we use this GPS here on Earth.

Considerably more than just GPS would have to be explained by any new theory. Time measurement differences exactly in accordance with general relativity have been measured to the limits of the accuracy of out instruments.

Mass changes exactly as predicted have been observed.

Gravitational lensing has been observed. Indeed, it has become an important tool in the astronomer's kit-bag.

The list goes on. Any new theory would have to explain these observations.If they can't then the new theory fails.

It should also be pointed out that some of the flaws in Newton's theory were know at the time they were presented. Though not certain, it is probable that Newton himself knew his theory was fatally flawed.

Special Relativity is just over a hundred years old and General Relativity is coming up on a hundred years. In that time both have passed every honest test presented.

It is going to take a lot more than a few you-tube links to some peudo-science that hasn't been peer reviewed and raises more questions than it answers to convince me to toss Relativity aside.

19) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Planck results (Message 1351281)
Posted 84 days ago by

kenzieB

If Uncle Albert was wrong (and he may very well have been) any replacement theories will have to explain all the predicted and observed results of relativity. No small task considering how subtle yet demonstrably real those effects are.

tuillo is 100% correct: GPS does work and if general relativity is wrong then it's replacement theory will have to explain why GPS works despite using a flawed theory.

20) Message boards : Cafe SETI : For those addicted to Chocolate (Message 1351248)
Posted 84 days ago by

kenzieB

I've a friend recently diagnosed with stomach cancer. His doctor tells him that he can eat as much chocolate as he wants.

Apparently there's anti-oxidants in there that can help prevent the spread of cancer as well as enzymes that have cancer curing properties.

So prevent cancer: stock up on that Easter chocolate. :)

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